Procter & Gamble, makers of probably half the products in your laundry room or under your kitchen sink says that in the next couple of weeks it will be switching to a double-latch lid for the Tide Pods containers.

Apparently some kids just can’t help but be enticed by the small orange, white and blue shiny blocks of detergent, with around 250 calls to poison control centers after kids consumed one.

Most of these cases have happened in just the last couple months since P&G began a major marketing push for the Pods.

Comments

Edit Your Comment

I bit into them once out of curiosity, they taste like soap nothing new. I like the pods because is somehting less to carry when you go toa coin laundry. I tried the purex sheets but I notice that the softner stains my shirts. My problem witht he pods is when I have a small badg of laundry I will hae to use more soap. I bought mine at costco so I have like 10000 pods to test

Has anybody thought that parents should be putting these in places where kids can’t get their hands on them? And why are we only hearing about laundry detergent pods and not these and dishwasher detergent “pods”.

My first thought when I heard about kids huffing on detergent pods was “when did this start?” When I was a kid, none of us did this. We had the classics – sharpies and magic markers. But this stuff? Laundry deterget was just laundry detergent. Are kids just dumber now?

Lack of sufficient parenting is more prevalent in today’s society. oh they won’t get into that….WRONG. I have an 18 month old daughter…precautions must be taken to prevent these kinds of things from happenning.

Honestly, I believe so. But in this case, these are small children…little ones always stick stuff in their mouth. So, in reality, the parents are being stupid. I remember my mother always had the laundry stuff ABOVE the washer. (Pots & pans, food storage containers were at child level.) I don’t have children, but I do the same thing. Do these parents place them on the floor, or at a lower cabinet?

I think part of the problem is that so many washers and dryers now are on pedestals that are made for the machines with drawers in the bottow to store you laundry products. Need a child latch on them like for the cabinets under the kitchen sink.

yes, but i also recall that when i was a kid the laundry detergent was pretty much powder in a cardboard box. none of this shiny bright colored stuff. it didn’t look at all appetizing
also, we were less stupid

Yeah, but it’s nice of Tide to change the packaging as a failsafe in case some kids aren’t properly supervised. The child shouldn’t be poisoned because his or her parents made a mistake supervising. It’s not like this packaging change is intended to replace supervision–it’s presumably intended to supplement it.

Whatever happened to Mr. Yuck? I remember being handed a pound of Mr. Yuck stickers after a school lesson and told to go label everything in my house that was poisonous with a sticker. It was a perfect system. Teach the very young to avoid Mr. Yuck, give the slightly older kids something to do that makes them feel important.

To be fair, pretty much every parent has had their kid manage to get into stuff they shouldn’t. Even amazing parents make a mistake or underestimate the ingenuity of their children. It’s nice that Tide is being proactive about it, it spins this into a positive whereas ignoring the issue could have resulted in a PR nightmare if a kid eventually died or was severely poisoned.

My child is now 17 & he has never tried to ingest any poison, why because good parents looked out for him & taught him early on about bad things instead of just making him more curious by hiding things in front of him.

I saw these for the first time about a day ago, the colors are bright and the pod itself has a milky-opalescent look – they look good but in a food type of good look. Its the type of color scheme that a candy manufacture would use. If you were to hand this to someone without telling them what it was, they would think its some type of weird food.

If a child was to see these, they would want it. Putting them in a safe spot is like the cookie jar on the top shelf in their mind, Something to try and reach when your not watching.

Kids are fast, and they have been known to spend time in non-childproof houses, like mine. Whenever I have a young visitor, their parents and I try to watch them like a hawk (mostly because I don’t want them breaking anything), but god forbid both adults have to wash our hands simultaneously- the kid will be in the front yard or into something he shouldn’t before we can dry our hands.

Anyone who thinks it’s possible to actively supervise a small child 100% of the time should babysit one for a few days.

I don’t have the Tide pods, but I do have Cascade dishwasher ones that look almost exactly like that. My 2-year-old loves to put them in the detergent compartment, and has never once tried to eat one. I actually started getting them because she would try to stick her hands in the liquid detergent when I was loading the dishwasher.

Does anyone else think these are totally unnecessary and overpriced for what they really are? They are just laundry detergent. I can buy a bottle of laundry detergent for $1.99 here at some places and pouring it isn’t any more of a chore to me than tossing a pod into the machine. Also tide is overly expensive, any detergent seems to get my clothing just as clean as the next.

I was thinking the same thing…are people that lazy? And Tide is overpriced enough as it is. And since you have to use the whole pod, you are probably wasting even more money if you aren’t running a full load. I don’t roll around in grass and mud all day, so I buy the $1.99 or less loss leader special at the grocery store (which is usually Arm & Hammer, which has a great smell, or Dynamo, which isn’t that great, but still gets clothes clean). Sometimes the dishwasher pods work out cheaper with coupons, but otherwise, I’ll stick with the big box of powder.

The only time I have ever bought “pods” (and I bought the cheap ones, not the Tide ones) was when I was stuck temporarily without a washing machine and had to go to the laundromat. The pods are more convenient for laundromat use than hauling around a heavy box or bottle. But there’s no way I’d pay that price for a gimmick when I’m at home with my own washer.

I live in an apartment building and have to go down two floors to do laundry. I might try these out … but really, I’ve found the All Small & Mighty to be great. It’s concentrated, so the 1-quart bottle has enough for 32 loads (if you use the recommended amount, which I rarely do, so it lasts longer). And it costs about $5 per bottle. Might want to try it out if you haven’t.

After my grandmother died last year, my 84-year old grandfather had to learn how to do his own laundry, among other things. He has surgery on his shoulders and as a result it is difficult for him to carry big bottles of detergent. Thankfully All Small and Mighty comes in really small bottles, but I could tell that he was having some trouble holding the cap steady when measuring out the detergent. Additionally, he was feeling really overwhelmed by all of the new skills he had to acquire so I gave him a bag of the Dropps Laundry Pacs and he was hooked.

That’s exactly the reason that I’m checking into laundry pods when I go grocery shopping later. I have bad arthritis and tremors in my hands, so opening the bottles and holding the lids steady aren’t easy for me. I’m just not sure how many pods I’d need to use because I already need to use tons of detergent to get stuff clean, and I’m sure they’re not cheap. Old washing machines FTL.

Though first, I’ll try (again) to rig something up or look for adaptive devices because I love love love my Mrs. Meyer’s geranium-scented laundry goodies, and I do NOT want to give them up! Or I’ll just break my hands and spill stuff. XD Also, Tide gives me hives, and they’re the only brand that I’ve seen that uses pods.

How many pods you need depends on which brand you use – my only experience is with the Tide Pods and Dropps Scent + Dye Free Laundry Paks. My grandfather’s washing machine is 7 years old, but it’s a basic top loader. For x-tra large loads of laundry, I need two pacs of Dropps, but one Tide pod works fine. It’s possible that one pac of the scented Dropps would work, but I have never tried them.

I’ve seen the pod style detergent from other brands, like All and Arm & Hammer, but I don’t know how well they work. Have you tried the Method detergent that comes in the pump bottles? I don’t know if those would be easier for you to use, but it might be worth checking out.

My problem with things like this is that the pods set the amount of soap you use, and where I live, we have very soft water. If you use the ‘recommended’ amount of soap, you will kill your washing machine. We halve or even quarter the amount when we do laundry, and our clothes come out clean. It means that a box of detergent will last me twice as long, though. That will never do!

The people at Proctor and Gamble really want to make us use more soap, so that we have to buy more soap… I refuse to buy this sort of thing.

Not just P&G, but other laundry soapmakers. When they brought out the concentrated liquids, the measuring cup lids stayed large. They make the measuring lines hard to see, and they don’t exactly correspond to the directions.

Now I can’t prove it or anything, but I think they want us to use more soap, so we’ll buy it faster. If it kills our machines, that’s great for the appliance makers, too!

I agree. I buy the cheapest laundry – and dish, for that matter – detergent based on unit price. Both work just fine, in my opinion. And, coincidentally, the detergents I regularly buy are the “eco-friendly” versions, so, added bonus! (FYI, Purex Naturals for laundry and Palmolive Eco for dish.)

My fiance’s grandmother makes her own detergent pods (yes, at home, go ahead and mark that square on your bingo cards) and they don’t look so much like food as much as heroin. And yet, you don’t hear about people getting hospitalize after shooting up with soap.

I grow catnip at home, my cats don’t like it but most do. Well, I make cat toys with it and give them to a rescue. Last week, I cliped the branches and let them dry – then placed them in a ziplock bag (left on my patio) until I was ready to stuff the mouse toys. When I went out today, I noticed the baggie was missing. I don’t know if a cat stole it or someone thought they hit the jackpot!! LOL

That’s a great idea! One of my cats loves it and the other doesn’t but I like the idea of making toys for the rescue.

Maybe someone did think they hit the jackpot. I had a small baggie of it sitting on my coffee table and my boyfriend, who is a cop and hasn’t owned a cat before, actually did think it was something illicit. When he asked me if it was dope I made the mistake of playing along. He didn’t arrest me, of course, but I had to let him smell it before he believed me.

We tried Tide Pods last week. They smells ‘off’, don’t clean, and clump with residue sticking to clothes. Sales will decline after the marketing efforts and initial curiosity get trumped by user experience.

That’s what I was afraid of. My roommate buys the pods for the dishwasher and they work OK, but I don’t use hot enough water for the laundry pod to break down. (I don’t use in the washer at all, in fact.)

Heck, I had to switch from laundry powder, because it left white streaks on my black clothes. I didn’t mind it so much, but Pepe le Pew started hitting on me!

I don’t see how it’s Tide’s fault that a bunch of stupid kids ate detergent because their parents left it out where they could reach it, failed to teach them not to put strange things in their mouths, & weren’t watching them.

Love the name (STILL in lust with Jordan Catalano), but kids aren’t stupid–they’re using their senses to learn about their environment. Also, do you think that those bright, appealing colors are just the way the detergent comes out of processing, or is it possible that it’s engineered that way? The same qualities can be appealing to two different groups of people for two different reasons.

I love tide pods. yes, they are expensive, but since I’m the chief clothes and bottle washer here, it’s my choice. I buy them at Sam’s so they are slightly less expensive. They just work so much better. I don’t know if it’s the combo of ingredients they use, but in my front loader the clothes come out so much cleaner and fresher. Perhaps before I was using too much detergent, or not enough, I don’t know, but I love me some Tide Pods :)

We received a free sample of one of these, so we decided to try it out. The pod didn’t disintegrate. It stayed stuck on a shirt and made it look like a clown splooged all over the shirt. Would never use these again; even if they were given to us for free. They did a terrible job.

When are parents going to be real parents & quit blaming everyone but themselves for this type of incident? There is no 100% childproof packaging but there is good parenting were you protect your children from dangers the best you can.

Because only stupid children with stupid or negligent parents ever have unfortunate accidents. And even when you’re doing “the best you can”, things happen. Toddlers are fast little creatures and can swallow damn near anything faster than you can move.

Besides, nowhere does it say the parents were demanding change. The companies are being proactive. At least they did it before someone died.

All this stuff should be “out of reach”, and in cabinets with child resistant hardware, available at most hardware stores. Also these packs are very costly, just use liquid, you can save money, and use a little less per load to stretch it. Also, buy other brands, Tide is way overpriced.

They do look like something that would be very enticing to a kid, and some kids are quite creative in getting into stuff… or visit relatives with non-kid proof homes. They look like something a candy company could easily have made, and even aside from that they just look interesting. Even if a kid didn’t eat them, I could easily see one using them as toy ammunition or something.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a better lid anyways. My cat occasionally gets into things I am sure she couldn’t get to, and the detergent lids are no obstacle at all. So far, she only eats plants I think are protected, but I could easily see her dumping these out to bat them around, or just climbing on the box and it falling open.

I like the pods for dishwashers; they just seem far less mess prone under the sink and make it easy for anyone in the house to get the dishes right. The liquids seem to ALWAYS have that one tiny drip in the cap, even when nothing directly spilled, that then gets all over the bottle and whatever it touches. They also do not cost that much more if I stock up at case lot sales and such. The laundry I can still find powder for, so I don’t use the pods. Maybe I’m a little clumsy or something, but I really hate the liquid.